Snowshoes have a frame that carries a decking. The frame is typically oblong and either in the form of an opened loop (e.g. having side segments and a front segment but no rear segment) or a closed loop (i.e. the frame peripherally encloses the decking and thus also includes a rear segment). A harness or binding allows the snowshoe to be releasably attached to the user's foot and a hinge member allows the harness to be pivotally mounted to the frame. The hinge member will allow the pivotal movement of the harnessed foot relative to the frame and decking during gait, and more particularly the harness will rock back and forth reciprocatingly through a toe hole made in the decking.
Hinge members come in different types. Some of them allow the harness to be mounted directly to the decking, while others instead allow the harness to be mounted to the frame. In the latter case, it is known to provide a pivot rod that extends transversely between the frame side segments and is fixedly attached thereto, with the harness being pivotally mounted to the pivot rod. With the pivot rod attached directly to the frame, any vibration or impact on the frame is transmitted through the rigid frame and pivot rod directly to the user's foot, making for an uncomfortable snowshoeing experience.
One known alternative to alleviate this problem is to attach the pivot rod to the frame by means of flexible leather or plastic straps in which case however the frame may undesirably collapse inwardly during gait. Indeed, as the user's load is applied on the harness and consequently on the pivot rod, the latter will be forced downwardly, effectively pulling on the flexible straps that attach it to the frame side segments. As a consequence, the frame side segments will be pulled inwardly, effectively undesirably deforming the frame during gait. This is also a detriment to a pleasant snowshoeing experience. One way to circumvent this problem is to reinforce the frame itself, for example by having a thicker frame, in which case the weight of the snowshoe undesirably increases.
Another problem with flexible straps linking the pivot rod to the frame is that it decreases the lateral control of the snowshoe. Indeed, when the user wishes to turn or sidestep, he will apply sideward pressure on his harness/pivot rod assembly. Since the latter is not rigidly linked to the frame through its flexible straps, there will be a lag in the movement of the frame/decking of the snowshoe with regards to the actual sideward movement of the foot. This is of course is undesirable.
Another problem with known hinge members relates to the allowable range of pivotal displacement of the snowshoe when it is worn. Indeed, if the attachment of the harness to the snowshoe allows a full range of pivotal displacement of one relative to the other, then when the user lifts his harnessed foot over ground, for example to walk over an obstacle such as a tree limb, the snowshoe rear end tail will hang towards the ground under it own weight, possibly getting caught up in the tree limb and generally hindering the user while he tries to step over the obstacle; concurrently, the front end of the snowshoe will pivot upwardly, possibly undesirably contacting the user's shinbone. One way to obviate this problem is to include a pivotal limiter on the snowshoe, However, known pivotal limiters are often inappropriate or ineffective; and some allow snow and ice to clog the limiter.